


Higgins Family Thanksgiving Dinner

by orphan_account



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, F/M, Homophobia, M/M, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 00:45:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12805914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Spot spends his first Thanksgiving at Race's family's house. Jack isn't helpful, Davey is encouraging, Race's brother sucks, but his sister-in-law doesn't, but his dad does. Also, Les and Medda are mentioned and who doesn't need more of them?





	Higgins Family Thanksgiving Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry but I can never get this formatting to work.

“Let's go, Racer! We're gonna be late!” Spot announced loudly from the living room. Davey and Jack were still sitting on their couch, making googly eyes at each other, even though Spot and Race had to leave post haste.  
“Why are you so anxious, Spot?” Jack teased from his seat on the couch, Davey cured into him, their feet up on the coffee table like it was their own place. “You've met them before, right?” Davey slapped him on behalf of Spot.  
“Awkwardly bumping into them with Race at the store doesn't count as meeting them, Kelly.” He winced at the memory.  
“Look on the bright side,” Davey consoled. “His sisters will be there and you like them.”  
“I like his sister. I've only ever met one.”  
“What are you so worried about?”  
“What's the worst that could happen?” Spot groaned.  
“What's the worst that could happen? They could hate me? His dad and one of his brothers already think I turned him gay and-”  
“Well, you can't really make that worse.”  
“Shut up, Jack. If they like me, at least a nice person turned him gay. But if he asks, I don't care.” Davey snorted.  
“Clearly.”  
“Okay,” Race appeared from the bedroom. “I'm ready. Bye, guys. Get out of our apartment sometime soon, yeah?”  
“Yeah.” They agreed in unison. 

The drive to the Higgins residence was filled with anxiety from both parties.  
“Look,” Spot began. “It's Thanksgiving and they love you. Nothing bad is gonna happen; I won't let it.” Race snorted.  
“This isn't high school anymore, Spot; you can't beat up everyone who gives me a hard time. Besides, I'm more worried about you.” Spot gave him an incredulous look.  
“Me? Why are you worried about me? I'm fine.”  
“I know you're nervous-”  
“I'm not-”  
“You are. But that's okay. It doesn't matter what they think, Sean.” Spot knows he's serious because he only says his real name when he's serious or sleepy.  
“Pfft. It matters to you, so it matters. But I'll keep that in mind.” Race smiles. 

“Antonio!” Race gets squashed into a hug almost immediately after the door is open. He laughs.  
“Hi, Ma.” Following their mother, what seems to Spot to be an army of Higgins children attack their brother in hugs and variations of the same greetings.  
“Antonio!”  
“Racer!”  
“Tony!”  
“Idiot!” That last one gets a good natured smack on the back of the head from their father. Race laughs again.  
“Hi, everyone! Happy Thanksgiving.” He awkwardly clears his throat. “This is Spot…my boyfriend.” Spot nervously waves, which results in a what-the-hell face from his boyfriend because he's literally never seen him do anything like that before. To their surprise, and relief, mostly everyone seems delighted Spot is there, as if they've been friends for years. Race’s father seemed hesitant but he politely said hello and one of the older boys gave him a gruff nod.  
Once they are ushered into the house, where there are more people, so many people, thought Spot, things became easier. They sat down and Spot got to stay mostly silent as the family chatted.  
“Antonio!” A yell came from the kitchen. “I need your help!” Race looked guiltily over to his boyfriend.  
“Grandma needs my sous chef skills. Sorry. I'll be back.” Spot nodded as Race got up and left.  
“So, Spot,” one of Race’s older brothers, Marco began. “What is it you do?”  
“I'm a law student.”  
“Where?” Spot knew when he was being interrogated and he sat up straight.  
“Columbia.” Marco did not look impressed.  
“How did you meet my brother?”  
“Why?”  
“I'm curious. Or is it not a story fit for the children?” The woman sitting next to Marco, presumably his wife, slapped his arm.  
“We ran in the same circles in high school. We weren't friends or anything. He ended being my foster brother, Jack’s, roommate in college.” Spot closed his mouth. He never like talking about what he considered to be personal, and he just gave away too much information for him to be comfortable with.  
“We've met Jack before.” His wife, Valerie, said. “He's awfully sweet.” Spot tried not to roll his eyes. “And that other friend of Tony’s. What was it again? David? He was real nice, too. Very smart.” Spot nodded. At this point, Race came back in the room.  
“Sorry, turkey emergency. Crisis averted. As he sat down, he plucked when of the smaller children from the floor and placed her on his lap. “What are we talking about?”  
“Your friend, David, from college. Do you still speak with him?” Valerie asked and Race nodded.  
“Oh yeah. In fact, he's dating Spot’s brother.”  
“Foster brother.”  
“Right.” Marco perked up and leaned forward.  
“Well, guess it runs in the family.”  
“What does?” Race inquired, naively, but Spot had already tended up.  
“Being a f-”  
“Okay! We're going for a walk!” Valerie declared before her husband could finish and dragged him out the front door. The room sat in silence briefly.  
“Uncle Tony?” The little girl in Race’s lap looked up at him.  
“What was Uncle Marco going to say?”  
“Nothing, sweetheart.”  
“Dinner!” Thank god.  
Once Valerie and Marco has returned and grace had been said, Spot went back to sitting in silence while a cacophony of voices sounded around him. He had only zoned out for a few seconds when he was called to attention.  
“Right, Spot?” He looked up to Race.  
“Uh, sorry, I missed the question.”  
“I was just telling Amy and Ava that you're graduating next year and taking the bar exam.”  
“Oh, yeah. Right.”  
“That's really impressive, Spot.” Amy, Race’s sister said. He smiled.  
“Thanks.”  
“And you,” she pointed at Race. “I remember the months leading up to the exam. Don't bother him.” Race laughed.  
“He's always bothering me, he's annoying.” The people around them laughed but Race just looked ecstatic that he was comfortable enough to joke. Ava, the sister he had met before and liked, smiled at him in understanding.  
During a lull in the conversations around the table, Mr. Higgins cleared his throat.  
“So, Spot.” He looked up nervously. “What are your plans after graduation?”  
“I umm…I’s not sure yet. I've had a couple different offers from different law firms but I haven't decided on anything.”  
“That's not what I meant. Sorry if I was unclear. I meant what are your plans with my son?” Silence. One of Race’s teenage sisters, Mary, actually dropped her fork.  
“Uh-”  
“That's not really any of your business, Dad.”  
“I think it is. If you're going to marry him I should know.”  
“Well, I-” Spot began.  
“We haven't gotten that far, Dad. We'll let you know if we do. I'll even let you pick the date so you can make sure all of our family friends are conveniently out of town.”  
“Why don't we move on?” Mrs. Higgins suggested.  
“Great, so what are everyone's plans for Christmas?” The oldest Higgins brother, Luca, tried. “I think I'm going to-”  
“I don't like what I've just been accused of.” Race’s father growled. Race opened his mouth to answer but Spot beat him to it.  
“Well, that's just tough, Mr. Higgins.” Race turned white as a sheet and Ava looked half scared, half invigorated.  
“Excuse me?”  
“It's what you get when you're ashamed of your gay son, Mr. Higgins.” Race gulped.  
“We…we should go.” He tried to get Spot to stand up.  
“Why leave, Tony? I'm having a perfectly good time.” Race sat back down and the meal proceeded in silence until his oblivious grandmother spoke.  
“I think next year I'll make more cranberry sauce.” Try as they might not to laugh, Ava’s eventual sputtering followed by Valerie's stifled giggles got the whole table laughing as Mr. Higgins excused himself from the table.  
“What? What did I say? What’s so funny?”  
“Nothing, Grandma.” 

Later, as they all sat around the house, lazy with full bellies, Race found Spot in the hallway, leaning against the wall, drinking wine. Race laughed.  
“Since when do you drink wine, Colon?”  
“Tell anybody and I'm breaking up with you.” Race mocked being offended.  
“Never!” He leaned in and hugged Spot.  
“So, how did speaking to your father go?”  
“It…it went. He’ll shut up about it.”  
“What did he say?”  
“Do we have to talk about it now, Sean? Can't I just have a few minutes of being with and hearing my family laugh in the next room and being warm and trying to keep myself from kissing you because if I do a six year old will walk in and tell everyone? Can I do that for a little while?” Spot sighed.  
“Yeah. Yeah, we can do that.” Race stayed clinging to Spot, resting his head on his chest.  
“I wonder what everyone else is doing right now?” Race wondered aloud. Spot sighed.  
“Katherine’s trying not to throw her drink at her father, Davey and Jack are sitting in the car making out, Medda’s wondering if they're coming upstairs to her apartment for dessert or just sit there, Medda’s wondering why we're late for dessert, Les is about to crash from sugar, Sarah is counting down the minutes until tomorrow when she sees Katherine, Romeo is drunkenly dancing, Specs is trying to control him while Mush and Blink cheer him on, Albert is regretting going to his sister’s house again, Smalls is also drunkenly dancing with Romeo, but now they're on top of the table and Specs has given up, and Henry is in a turkey coma. Same thing that happens every year.” Race pulled away and stared slack jawed at him for a minute.  
“Are you drunk? Oh my god, you're drunk.”  
“What did you expect? I'm at your family dinner and I've had too much wine.” Race laughed and took the glass away from him.  
“Okay, let's say our goodbyes and go to Medda’s.” Spot nodded and began to walk away but Race pulled him back.  
“Hey. Thanks for coming with me. It really means a lot.”  
“Shut up and drive, Higgins.” He threw his boyfriend the keys. “Let's go.”


End file.
